Southwest, AirTran sale fares dip below $100 round-trip

ATLANTA -- Southwest Airlines rolled out a fare sale Tuesday afternoon in which the price of its flights are based on distance.

Bargain hunters can snag round-trip fares as low as $98 on short routes, with longer flights costing incrementally more. Regardless of the length of the flight, however, deal-seekers will have to act fast to lock in those prices. Southwest's sale runs only through end of the day Thursday (Feb. 7).

Southwest's distance-based sale prices - which also are offered on subsidiary AirTran - break down as follows:

$49 each way (500 miles or less)
$89 each way (501 to 1,000 miles)
$119 each way (1,001 to 1,500 miles)
$149 each way (More than 1,500 miles)

That pricing puts round-trip fares at less than $100 on dozens of Southwest and AirTran city pairs. Among the sub-$100 options: are Atlanta-St. Louis; Baltimore-Boston; Chicago-Minneapolis; Denver-Albuquerque; Houston-Dallas; Las Vegas-Oakland and Los Angeles-Phoenix;

As for the fine print, the sale covers nonstop flights from April 3 through June 8. The cheapest sale fares will disappear from flights as they begin to sell out. All Sunday flights are excluded. Systemwide blackout dates are May 10, 17, 23-24 and 27-28. In New England, April 12-13 and 15-16 are blacked out for flights at Boston, Providence and Manchester, N.H.

Tickets must be purchased Thursday by 11:59 p.m. in the time zone of the originating city.